


The Wolf Among Us

by HPLovecraftHadAPetPony



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Humanstuck, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Ladystuck, not majorly but just to be safe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-06-21 14:18:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15559584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HPLovecraftHadAPetPony/pseuds/HPLovecraftHadAPetPony
Summary: Jade Harley is dealing with the body she’s been dealt. Rose Lalonde is trying to get to the bottom of it. Kanaya Maryam is dealing with her feelings poorly. Vriska (Vriska).





	1. I

You know you won’t remember as its happening. You never even remember the change. One minute, you’re a sleeping girl. Several later, you’re the beast in the woods. The distance between this can’t be measured. Wolves don’t understand math half as well as valedictorians do. They understand hunger and they understand instinct. The small things and big things in the fields each know this. It’s not enough to save them. They’re much too slow.

You come across a puddle and you see your face for the first time. You know you aren’t a girl anymore, but you didn’t think you looked like that. There’s nothing left of what you knew. It’s all white fur and white teeth and white eyes. You couldn’t pass for a wolf either, though. 

You run out of the fields as the sun starts to rise. The pastures reach the edge of town and in many people’s backyards. Jade knows this, she frequents them. Flower picking and target practice, all in the same trip. You aren’t Jade, you don’t think. Maybe this is why you were doomed to meet her. Maybe this is why she was doomed to see you. Rose Lalonde is the lone witness to your inhumanity. She watches from the garden with tea in her hands. There is sleep in her eyes but not enough to blind her. You felt a twinge of recognition before the dire need to get home kicks in. 

~~~

The two of you are walking through the forest the next day when she asks the question. You are all Jade this time and will be for a while. Rose is always at your house. She likes the dark forest much better than the fields, but Roxy was the firstborn and her garden preferences came first. 

“Was it you?” Rose asks and you both know you can’t answer. Or maybe not. She looks so expectant, so rarely hopeful. Maybe that’s the test.

“It wasn’t me,” You hum, “I was asleep.”

“Those aren’t inherently contradictory,” she brushes her fingers against your own. Without thinking, you grasp her hand. What else were you meant to do?

“Then I don’t know. I couldn’t. It’s up for you to solve. Or maybe Jane.” You shrug. “I could ask her for you.”

“No,” Rose shakes her head, “I want it to be my mystery. Ours.”

You don’t tell her that you think she was dreaming. You don’t tell her that you think it was just a stray. You don’t voice your doubts to her because the more she talks, the more they fade.

On the other hand, you don’t tell her that. Nor do you tell her about the scratches on your back and the dents on your window frame. You don’t tell her how you wake up some mornings with your clothes torn off and blood in your mouth and you have been for a while now.

You don’t tell her any of that but you feel like she already knows.

~~~

“Where do you get your information?” You ask her. The two of you are back in the forest again, but further this time. The waterfall is loud in the background, but Rose is a good listener. She hears you.

“The cards,” she says, pulling them from her bag, “Can’t use Scratch’s ball anymore and I wouldn’t want to. These aren’t as accurate, but they get the job done.”

The backs of them are intricately decorated, trimming and tentacles circulating a white sun. The images on the front are recognizable as tarot, but they’re no style you’ve seen before. As you look over them, you begin to recognize it as her own.

“You drew them?” You take them from her, looking it over. They’re beautiful. 

“Handpainted,” she says and puts the tarot cards back in her bag. Her movements are slowed and her hands are shaking slightly. You know she always gets weird around water. Anticipatory, even. You never quite knew what she expected to happen, but you always had an idea. The water scares her as much as it attracts her. 

You move her bag out of the way so it won’t get wet and you take your shirt off. It was dirty anyway. So are your jeans. Your body is less covered in dirt but compensates with blood. Rose watches as you climb into the cold water.

“We’re not in a fairytale, you know,” she gets to her feet, “This isn’t a Romanticism painting. That water will give you an infection.”

“No it won’t! It’s crystal clean,” You smile at her but you don’t need to. She’s already removing her jacket and shirt. Nothing in nature could stop her descent into the water with you.

~~~

You didn’t get an infection, but both of you walked home without a shirt. At least she wore a bra. Luckily, your house is right by the woods. You can enter from the backyard. Rose is with you, still, and doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. She is something different in water, something more sensitive, something a little less her. But the part that is her is coming back, clinging to your arm. She looks tired. She looks dead, but she is still talking.

“It’s not just the cards,” she says.

“I figured as much.” You nod. “Is it the ghosts, too?”

“Yeah. One in particular. She’s a sweet girl. Aradia Megido.”

“Sounds familiar. I think I’ve read her obituary.” You unlock the back door.

“Doubt it. Her body was never found. More likely that she spoke to you. She talks to everyone.” Rose follows you in.

“What if I don’t believe in ghosts?” You test.

“Why entertain hypotheticals?” She raises an eyebrow and she’s right. You know this town is haunted as much as anyone else. 

The two of you shower. You let her go first because you are a gentlelady and also because you need to take your clothes out of the dryer. As you move to the laundry room, Bec is already there. He stares at the cycle even without eyes. That dog, man. Maybe Dave was right about putting him to sleep. Not really, though. You love the pup and give him his toy from the dryer. He runs off with it into the night. The rest of the basket is what you take upstairs. As you pass the bathroom, you hear Rose singing to herself. It sounds like French.

Soon after, she comes out in a robe. You rush into the bathroom to get the cold out of you. She turns as you go but she says nothing.

You thought for sure she would ask to have a seance, but Rose is asleep when you come back. You crawl into bed next to her and are out before you know it.

~~~

“Rose, it’s Monday, c’mon!” You roll out of bed as your alarm goes off. She groans and curls further into bed. In the time it takes her to open her eyes, you’ve already taken out an outfit and are putting your face mask on. It doesn’t do anything except make you feel more refreshed. You rush down the stairs to make breakfast: avocado toast with a mango and raspberry smoothie. It should last you until lunchtime. While the toast is cooking, you go to call Bec in. He appears behind you and you get his food.

Rose meets you on the stairs as you jog back to your room. She’s wearing your robe and looks dead tired. You run past her to get your schoolbag. When you come back, she’s at the table. She’s drinking leftover iced coffee and a brown sugar pop tart, scrolling through her phone.

“Did we have homework?” She asks.

“It’s high school, dummy, of course we have homework. Should we stop at your house?” You pull the toast from the toaster oven.

“Jade, your faith in me is more than I deserve. More than I can measure up to, actually. Shame on you.” She sips her drink. You sit down across from her.

“Rose, why don’t you try? You’re so smart but nobody gets to see it.” You frown.

“Some people grind to be seen,” she taps her forehead.

“...I grind to disappear,” you both finish. She says that all the time and it’s never any funnier.

“And when do you reappear? When do I get to know your end goal?” You whine.

“You’ll be a part of it. I promise,” she smiles at you. The coffee cup is already empty, somehow. She goes to get changed as you brush your teeth and take off your mask. The two of you are ready in a couple minutes, then you’re driving to school a little after.

Rose is in hardly any of your classes this year. You’re glad for this because she’s an easy distraction. Sometimes, she’s even worse than Dave - but today he’s giving her a run for her money. You have to tune him out to focus, but some glimpses of what he says get through.

“-but like, why would you even bother making the goddamn maple leaves if you’re not gonna eat them? we had one chance and I guess it was kinda funny but I wanted to try it-“

You have to google the formula for one of the more complicated problems and scribble it down. It was the breakthrough you needed and you finish the rest of the page with ease. 

“-show me how to make a freezer burn snow angel and I’ll relent but until then you need to say that they aren’t the same thing. The freezer doesn’t speak French okay it doesn’t have the same charisma-“

“You can’t have fun in a freezer. You can only die in a freezer,” You turn the page over.

“YES okay Harley you get it. I’m gonna get Roxy to take me to Canada on her next trip so I can show him that-“

You tune him out again, but you can’t focus on your paper. The classroom door opened. She walks in. You hardly ever see her in school and it’s a wonder she hasn’t been caught by the truancy officer yet. Maybe she doesn’t even go here? But the teachers all seem to know her. You know well enough to mind your own business about that sort of thing, but Kanaya Maryam commands attention wherever she goes. 

“You cool?” Dave taps your shoulder. You jump back.

“The coolest,” You smile, but he caught you looking. 

“Maryam, huh? She’s not from around here.” He shrugs.

“Lower your voice,” you bark at him, “And how would you know?”

“She’s Karkat’s friend. We never talk because she’s never around. Nobody knows what she gets up to, but I hear she’s crazy.” He glances at her, then adds, “In a good way.”

“What a disappointment,” you laugh, “Do you think I have a chance?”

“I bet you could get any girl you want, Harley,” he nudges you. It’s an uncharacteristically sweet thing for him to say and you smile despite yourself. Then you realize he’s copying off your sheet. You pull it away.

“Oh come on,” he tugs it back.

“I can’t share the valedictorian role with you, Dave!” You stick your tongue out, “They don’t accept speeches via rap.”

“Academia is doomed,” he lets the paper go. When you finish, you give it to him anyway. Meanwhile, you go to the bathroom. You need a second to think.

~~~~

“Harley!” Vriska cheers when she sees you. Her cigarette smoke fills the room.

“Serket,” you give her a hesitant smile. You didn’t want to deal with her right now, but you’re here.

“Still busy being an intellectual, huh? Trying to prove that you’re better than the rest of us?” She grins.

“Nope!” You smile, “I actually took a break from class. I wanted to see you.”

“Really?” She rolls her eye. It’s all mutated, but she’s stopped covering it. She’s gotten more confident since middle school, for the better or worse.

“Yeah! I think you’re pretty smart too.” You lean against the wall. She puts her arm around your shoulder.

“Don’t bullshit me, Harley, it doesn’t work. What do you want?”

“You know Kanaya?” You push her arm off, “Like, have you spoken to her?”

“We’ve done more than speak, you know,” Vriska laughs crudely. You flinch.

“Is she okay?” You ask before you can stop yourself. Vriska’s smile doesn’t disappear. Before she can answer, another voice chimes in.

“Am I okay?” Kanaya asks from the doorway. Vriska blushes and pulls back.

“I’m fine. How are you?” She saunters into the room, dressed in all black.

“I-I’m fine!” You stammer.

“Or, should I say, who are you?” She narrows her eyes in your direction.

“Jade Harley,” Vriska answers for you, “she’s the valedictorian. Total babe, but total bore.”

“Oh,” Kanaya bites her lip, glancing at Vriska. Then, she looks back at you, “Is there anything in particular you’d like to know?” 

“Well,” You rub your neck, “I’d...like to get to know you better. I see you around school and you seem cool, but you’re never around long enough to speak to. Maybe we could be friends?”

You give her your best smile. She is unphased and Vriska mutters, “oh brother.”

Then, she surprises both of you. 

“Sure,” she shrugs, “Want my number?” 

“Really?” You cry out, then cover your mouth, “I mean, yeah, sure!”

She writes it on your arm in green ink. As she does, you look at Vriska. Her face is mostly blank, but her eyes look tired. As soon as Kanaya is done, you hurry out of the bathroom to let them talk.

~~~

Rose catches a ride home from Dave, saying they have important business to get to. You don’t even want to know what those two get up to when you aren’t around. Unfortunately, that means you need to call Kanaya alone. You sit with Bec on the floor as you dial her.

“Hey, Kanaya? It’s Jade! You said we could talk?”

“Yes, that was a thing I said,” she muses.

“Yup, so, that’s what I’m doing. What are you up to?”

“Not sure.”

“Not sure?” You ask, “Is everything okay?”

“Just peachy,” she replies, “Is it alright if I come over your house?”

You gasp and put the phone down. You reply before she can ask what happened.

“Yeah, that’s fine. Do you know how to get here?”

You give her your address and directions and she arrives at your door fifteen minutes later. She’s wearing sunglasses (far more stylish than Dave’s) and carrying a parasol. You invite her in with the sense that you have to.

“You have a lovely house,” she mutters as she enters your living room. You move some throw pillows out of the way so that she can sit.

“Thanks! It’s mostly just me living here, so if I don’t keep it tidy, nobody will.” You laugh.

“Where are your parents?” She asks.

“Uh...I don’t have any. I just live with my brother, but he’s away for a couple months. Anyway, have you eaten?”

“No. I’m alright, though. I have something to ask you,” Kanaya folds her hands in her lap.

“Mm? What is it?” You sit next to her with a smile, glad she is opening up to you.

“Are you a werewolf?” She asks. You freeze.

“I see,” She remarks. It is apparently answer enough for her. Before you can even start to explain, she moves on.

“Beyond that, do you think you could help me catch up with trigonometry? Vriska and Karkat are no help, but I would really like to pass this year,” she implores. You stand up and walk away. She watches you go and says nothing.

It takes you five minutes to calm down, enough to rationalize, enough to plan. Still, you feel sick when you return.

“Why would you ask me that?” You demand to know. She hasn’t moved, but she’s eating Pocky.

“I can tell. Heightened senses and all that.”

“I don’t follow,” your nails dig into your palms. It isn’t with anger. It’s with fear.

“I didn’t mean to upset you, Jade. If anything, I thought some clarity would help you. Doesn’t it?” She looks up at you from beneath her shades. Your face twitches.

“Let’s do trig,” you say, sitting down next to her. For a second, you see her smile.

It’s an hour later when Kanaya admits that she’s hungry. She tells you she’s a vegetarian, but you are too, so it’s alright. You get her some chips and vegetables with hummus. 

“Is there garlic in it?” She asks.  
“Well, yeah, it’s hummus,” you shrug. She nods and pulls out her epipen.  
“So be it.”

You get back to work, but your eyes keep drifting onto her lips. You can’t help it. Something is behind them.

“So, I guess you do most of your work from home?” You ask her.  
“Mm.” She nods and wraps her jacket around her tighter.  
“Why?” You ask, “How don’t you get in trouble?”  
“Jade, I appreciate your concern,” she straightens harshly, “but if you just befriended me to interrogate me, I’m afraid this won’t work out.”  
“What?” You laugh, “Didn’t you just ask me something extremely personal? Isn’t it okay for me to ask the same thing? At least I’m not so blatant about it.”  
She huffs, but leans against the couch. Outside, the sun is setting. You get an idea.

Kanaya follows you to your bedroom, then out your window. The spring breeze is cool and crisp. You help her onto your roof. She takes the snack tray with her, a feat you greatly admire. You left your work below. 

“The stars will be out soon. They’re incredible from here,” you tell her, “but we have time before then. Let’s clear the air.”

Kanaya Maryam is a vampire. You knew this, of course, but it’s nice to hear her admit it. She was born like that, into a family like that. Not a coven, she says, that would be weird. She just lives with her sister and some odd aunts and cousins. They live out of town. Kanaya doesn’t actually care for school, she has her own idea of the future. However, she liked being there sometimes. She liked observing people, since she so rarely got out.

“Wait,” you interrupt, “You only come here to spy on people, but you thought i was being intrusive?” 

She nods, “I guess I’ve never experienced the inverse before. Nobody’s really taken an interest in me.”

“What about Vriska?” You ask.

“Vriska,” she sighs, “she’s something, isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” you laugh, “I hear she had a rough life, though, so I try not to retaliate.”

“That’s very nice of you,” Kanaya looks down at her own manicured hands, “I was the same way for a while. She can be an incredibly loving person, you know, if she cares about you...”

“...Does she care about you?” You ask her after a gap.

“She does,” Kanaya says, “But I cared about her more. That was my mistake.”

Kanaya and Vriska have been talking for more than a year. She spares you many details but you don’t press. She looks fragile in the moonlight. She goes on to say that she’s come down to town a lot more frequently just to see Vriska. However, she was never able to relate to her. Despite how much Kanaya loved her, Kanaya had never lived like a teenage girl. She always had secrets she had to hide, even from her best friends. It made the relationship hard to navigate. Beyond that, she noticed Vriska was occupied. She became even more careless than usual. It took Kanaya a while to realize just what it was Vriska was after.

“And what was it?” You’re on the edge of your seat.

“Do you know a Terezi Pyrope?” Kanaya asks you. You nod enthusiastically.

“Yeah! She went to my middle school. Her and Vriska were super close. Her and Karkat, too.” You think back. Terezi was cool, even if she ate all your crayons.

“They still are. You know that’s why Vriska acts up? She’s trying to get expelled, so she can leave with Terezi. They’ve been planning this for years.”

“Leave? Where to?”

“Terezi was sent to a boarding school a state over for law. Vriska was stuck here. They’re going to run away as soon as Terezi gets an out. They’re both trying to escape. Terezi from her fate and Vriska from her family. It’s so romantic,” Kanaya sighs.

“I could never live up to it.” She covers her eyes. 

You scoot closer to her and rub her back. You try to comfort her but you know she isn’t listening all that much.

“Hey,” you whisper, “the stars are out.”

They are. Kanaya looks up and seems to forget what she was doing before. The two of you lie on your backs against the roof and let your minds clear. The stars are all there are. It’s a calm that nothing on Earth can match. 

~~~

Kanaya slept in your bed. You took the couch. As you’re getting ready for school, you try and see if she’s coming.

“You are?” She squints at you, “That’s terrible for you.”

 

“Yeah! Got to go, though!” You wink at her and rush back downstairs. Bec rushes past you on the stairs and you start to feel bad for Kanaya. You start to make breakfast with a yogurt bowl, then move towards the front door.

“Wait,” she appears at the doorway, faster than you thought was possible. You jump back.

“I said too much yesterday. I hardly know you. Promise me you’ll keep this between us?” She approaches you. 

“Pinkie promise,” you hold up your pinkie finger. She seems puzzled for a second, but she soon smiles and copies you. As you link, you add, “Whatever I tell you about my condition, you’ll keep a secret too?”

“Pinkie promise,” she repeats.

She steps out of the doorway and away from the sun. You wave goodbye as you get to your car. She is so cool, you think, but she is so human too.


	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Jade ever reveal the story of her bite? Will Rose ever sleep at her own house? Will Kanaya ever stop internally screaming? Will Vriska learn to take a hint? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z!

Rose wasn’t at school, which is not an unusual occurrence. She could show up once a week and still breeze through. What worries you is that Dave wasn’t there either. You can’t get in touch with either of them, so you go home. To your surprise, Kanaya is still there. To your greater surprise, Vriska is there too.

“Harley! I didn’t know you had a dog!” She laughs. Her and Bec are rolling on the floor. It’s the first time you’ve seen her looking genuinely happy.

“Didn’t know you were a dog person,” you sit down on the couch next to Kanaya. She’s trying to lint roll the white fur off of her black attire. 

“I love dogs! All animals, actually,” Vriska rubs his neck, cooing at him. He licks her face. She laughs and pushes him away before standing up.

“You know, I think we can make this work!” She says, “I’ve revised my stance on you. What’s on the agenda today?”

“I didn’t invite you, Vriska, there’s nothing on the agenda,” Kanaya says. Something dangerous flashes across both their faces. You call Bec and move to another couch. 

“Uh, a little hostile there, Maryam. Everything okay?” Vriska sits down next to her, with her knees propped on her elbows. 

“It’s fine. Nevermind,” Kanaya waves her hand, “Is there a plan, Jade? I was just waiting for you to get back.”

She looks at you and you get the meaning. But Vriska isn’t your girlfriend to kick out. Besides, it’s rare you ever get to hang out with people so cool. You don’t want to waste it. The three of you end up going to the mall. Kanaya has to put her jacket back on as well as her parasol, but she says she doesn’t mind the sun. Vriska doesn’t listen when you tell her that there’s no dogs allowed at the mall. Bec doesn’t let her put a leash on, but he follows you out the door.

The mall isn’t a long walk, but it’s long enough. You go ahead with Bec as Vriska falls back. Her and Kanaya whisper to each other. You have good enough hearing that you could listen in if you tried. You don’t try. You’re nice like that.

You ask Kanaya the moment you’re alone. The two of you ducked into a small bookstore while Vriska went to the food court. Kanaya’s red, but she manages to tell you parts of it. She was dropping hints to Vriska that she wasn’t interested anymore, but Vriska was a dumbass and didn’t pick up on any of them. Kanaya says she’s just going to wait it out. Vriska and Terezi are both leaving town soon. Worse, they invited Kanaya.

“You’re not gonna go?” You ask, flipping through one of books. It’s about herbalism.

“I couldn’t. My family won’t let me. Besides, I have work to do.” She purses her lips.

“Kanaya...,” you brush against her hand, “...do you want to go?”

“Of course I do,” she insists, “just...not with Terezi. And not with that goal in mind.”

“I get it. It’s alright, you’ll have another chance. You’ll find someone who appreciates you more,” You promise her. She smiles like she appreciates it and maybe you shouldn’t say more. But something is bothering you.

“What goal?” You ask her.

“I didn’t tell you?” Her eyes widen, “Jade, they want to be paranormal investigators.”

“Ah, shit,” you curse, “they don’t know about you?”

“I’m...not sure,” she brushes a strand of hair out of her face. You turn to make sure Vriska hasn’t come back yet.

“Well, Terezi has no way of knowing. I didn’t tell Vriska, either, but...I don’t know. Most of the time, she seems oblivious. Still, sometimes, she says things like she knows. It’s so offhand, I don’t even know where to begin asking her about it. Then she just goes back to obliviousness. It’s so frustrating.”

You blink and resist the urge to tell her how familiar it sounds.

~~~~

You meet back up with Vriska at the food court. She got lost. Kanaya doesn’t have time to get mad at her before the yelling starts. It’s from the security guards and it makes both of you jump. Vriska seems unphased.

“Yo, you can’t skate here!” The guard yells.  
“I’m so sorry!” Dave flips past him.  
“Fuck blue lives!” Rose grinds on the rail with her skates. They both look like they’re getting away, but they notice you. Rose rushes over and Dave trails behind her. She hardly slows and throws her arms around you. You catch her easily. Strength training pays off. Dave and Vriska high-five.

“Woah, Jade and Vriska? Top 10 Anime Crossovers, amirite, ladies?” He looks your group over, but oddly avoids Kanaya. You think you would to, had you not liked her so much.

“Yeah, we’re bros now,” Vriska jokes. You actually had no idea she and Dave knew each other, but it makes you relax a little. 

Rose knows Vriska also. You kind of knew this, but never knew their feelings towards one another. Whatever the case, Rose seems to like you better. She wraps her arms around your shoulders and stares Vriska down. It’s a nice but unnecessary gesture. You know Vriska’s insults are empty. They don’t bother you. Then, Rose turns to Kanaya. You know for a fact they’ve never spoken because, knowing Rose, she would never stop talking about. Still, she speaks to Kanaya with certainty.

“Nice to see you out, Miss Maryam. Did the monotony of the cathedrals finally catch up with you? Are you ready to see walls not made of mosaics? Does the thrall of human life call to you, and this time, you don’t resist?” 

“Ah shit, Rose is doing the thing where she says weird shit to strangers again. Sorry Kanaya,” Dave puts his hands in his pockets.

“Actually, I came to see your human life specifically. Exclusively, even,” Kanaya ignores him and keeps her eyes trained on Rose. Rose chuckles, but before she can reply with something equally dumb and flirtatious, the guard comes over.

“I’m gonna have to ask all of you to leave,” he pants, “and there’s no dogs allowed in the mall.”

“Told ya so,” you whisper to Vriska. You turn to convince the guard to let you stay, but Kanaya steps up to him.

“Actually, we’re supposed to be here. We’ve done nothing wrong. The dog especially.” Her voice is husky as she lowers her glasses. You catch a flash of red behind them. They used to be green. As she puts the shades back on, the security guard turns and walks away. She returns to her original position.

“That’s so hot, Kan,” Vriska stares at her. She nods. Rose looks equally unbothered, but you and Dave trade looks. Very confused looks. 

Dave and Rose both go back to skating, now unable to be interrupted. Vriska has her board in her bag, but won’t skate. She doesn’t say why, so the three of you go down to the fountain.

“You believe in wishes?” You ask them.

“Yeah,” Vriska flips a coin into the water, “What else can I believe in?”

“Yourself,” Kanaya answers.

“Myself!” Vriska exclaims. She hops into the fountain and busts her knee. Kanaya sits against the edge of it with her new book. The cover is pretty garish, but you guess you can see the appeal. It’s a young-adult romance novel. She reads it like it’s an Oxford study. Bec hops into the fountain after Vriska, so you do too. The three of you scourge for coins at the tile floor. It’s hard to see through the water, but you manage.

“Wish thieves,” Kanaya mumbles.  
“Hell yeah!” Vriska throws a nickel at her. She catches it without looking and pockets it. You stifle a laugh and keep digging in the water.

You end up with $7.54. Vriska has more, but you give her yours anyway because you figure she cares more too. Bec ends up with none because he doesn’t have thumbs. Rose and Dave catch up to you. They both try to grind against the fountain and both fail. It’s too wet and circular.

Rose sits between you and Kanaya. She’s not dressed as goth as usual. She’s wearing ripped jeans, a purple flannel, and a beanie. The California lesbian energy radiates off her, even thought you’re nowhere near the West Coast. She has her hand wrapped within your own, but she’s looking at Kanaya. Kanaya looks straight ahead, but you both can tell she’s listening.

“Don’t you have some ethical or Freudian hangups about mind control?” Rose asks her.

“I don’t crucify myself, nor do I allow anyone else too,” she leans back, stretching out her arms. The parasol is tilted up against her side; the mall has far too many windows for light to slip in. 

“Can you do it to anyone? Are there regulations?” Rose questions.

“Are you interested?” Kanaya lowers her glasses. Her eyes are green again.

“Very.” Rose’s own eyes light up. She grips your hand tighter to look back at you. Kanaya looks over too. 

“Your turn,” she says. Her fangs slip out from behind her black lipstick. You nod.

~~~

You paid Dave to keep Vriska busy. He brought an extra board and she brought weed, so you figure they’ll be fine for the rest of the day. Rose switches back into her sneakers and Kanaya gets Bec to follow her. The three of you hurry out of the mall. You don’t know where exactly you’re going, but you think there’s too many people out. Your house is too far and the walk is too familiar to be interesting. Rose takes the lead, regrettably.

You enter Godfrey House for the first time. Rose frequents there and Kanaya seems the type, but you’ve never had the time or interest to investigate. It’s been abandoned before you were born and even before Jake was born. Some people think it’s haunted. Rose knows it’s haunted. Today, though, she seems dissatisfied.

“She’s not here right now, I guess,” Rose pulls out some kitchen chairs for you all to sit. Most of the furniture is derelict, but it doesn’t collapse immediately. Both of the girls look eagerly towards you. Rose even folds her hands at attention. Your fingernails rap and chip away at the table as you go back to where this all began.

~~~

The bite didn’t happen in town. If it did, you’d never go outside. It happened over spring break. Jake was still away with work, but paid for your plane tickets. Destination Oregon. You’d be part of a hiking group for now, but soon enough you’d be able to go solo. That was more than motivation to go, besides the beauty of Oregon’s parks.

On the first night, things went wrong. You blamed yourself in the beginning, but in retrospect, it was probably better off that way. You found the wolf. It didn’t find you or anyone else sleeping soundly.

It was so dark in the forest and so loud. Your ears have always been sensitive. In the featureless tent, the bugs and wind sounded like they were right next to you. You couldn’t take it. You had to interact with the world, investigate the noise, feel something, anything. You took your flashlight and wrapped your red jacket around yourself. You have to be deathly quiet to avoid waking up and angering any strangers. You avoid the twigs in the road and forest as you make it back to the main trail. Something is waiting for you there.

It was shaking when it saw you. It was technically on the road, but it looked like it was half-off. If you waited a couple minutes longer, maybe it would’ve been gone by then. But probably not. It would’ve found you sooner or later. It was intense like that. It was intent like that. It was bigger than any wolf you’ve seen and darker. It was like a black hole against the night sky. Its green eyes were the only part you could see. Then, you could see it’s teeth. They were blindingly white.

It attacked you completely unprovoked. All you did was see it. You thought maybe it was going for your throat, but whatever the case, it only got your arm. It wasn’t enough to kill. It might’ve done more, but you kicked it hard in the neck. You kept beating it until it ran. It only got one hit on you. You think you got 11.

You trudged back to camp as they called an emergency ambulance. Once your show symptoms of rabies, you’re as good as dead. The ambulance was there in an hour to give you all of the many, many, many shots necessary. They didn’t even test for rabies - the risk is too great and the time is too little. You went to the hospital to spend the night. They sent the information to your family practitioner and send you home quickly to contribute treatment locally. Jake even came home for a couple days to check on you. Mostly to apologize, but you never blamed him. You just wanted to stay with him for a while. The wolf and talk of rabies had scared you more than you cared to admit, but he made it better. You never realized how much you missed him until he was there.

At this point in the story, the girls are both staring at you as you delve into your deep-rooted family issues. You clear your throat as you get to the important part.

Jake had to leave soon afterwards and you were left alone again. You continued treatment for the rabies, but another problem was developing in the background. As the full moon approached, you got more and more irritable. You weren’t a stupid girl by any means, and if the wolf itself wasn’t enough of a message, this certainly was. You started to get paranoid. Even Bec avoided you and you couldn’t blame him. Finally, the week of the full moon came. It would be on a Friday. Imagine your surprise when, come Wednesday morning, you woke up with your clothes all torn and your body aching. 

The school let you stay home the week after Spring Break to continue treatment. You had tons of time to recover your muscles and vomit out whatever you swallowed during the night. Then, it happened again. Not the whole week, but most of it. There was no traceable pattern. 

Then, even after Friday, you would have nights like it. Only two so far, both far apart. It had been a month since the initial bite. Another full moon was coming within two weeks. By then, it would be summer. Who knows what might happen then? 

Your story turns into a sort of venting. You’re glad to get it off your chest, more than you thought you would be, but you feel like you said too much. Maybe that’s how Kanaya felt. But both girls look at you with understanding. Sympathy but not pity. Rose takes your hand and holds it against her chest. Kanaya nods, tapping her own nails against the table.

“Interesting” is all she calls in. She says she’ll look into it further for you. She has a personal interest in the supernatural, as any good vampire should. Rose is just as eager to understand and she manages to get Kanaya’s number. She slips into her flannel with a satisfied look on her face.

The house is getting darker with no lighting inside, so you all get ready to leave. Kanaya says her sister will come to pick her up, but Rose looks expectantly towards you.

“Is it okay if I sleep over?” She asks at you, smiling sweetly. 

“Ah, I don’t know, Rose,” you play with your bracelets, “I only let you do it last time because I had an incident the night before. They’re always far apart. Now, I think I’m actually past due. What if I bite you?”

“If you bite me? Though I do prefer vampires,” she winks at Kanaya, “Being a wolf with you is my idea of a good time.”

“The rabies shots are no fun, though,” You shiver. She insists, but you have to turn her down. Roxy takes good care of her, she’ll be fine at home. She leaves you with a hug. Kanaya walks with you to one of the bigger streets so her sister can find her. 

“Your friend is interesting,” Kanaya says, “And open-minded.”

“Yeah, Rose is a genius. She’s familiar though, isn’t she?” You lean towards Kanaya. She nods.

“Eerily so.”

~~~ 

Bec and you make it home without incident. Dave snapchats you to show him and Vriska at the skatepark. They’re surrounded by smoke. They look happy, though, so you’re fine with it. You feed Bec, lock all the doors and windows, then start to cook for yourself. You’re making vegetable couscous, but part of you thinks it’s stupid to stay vegetarian after this. Kanaya does it though, right? Vampires are different, though. Kanaya seems so classy and in control. You’re just a thoughtless monster. How unfair. 

You make the vegetable couscous anyway and read while it’s cooking. You got the herbalism book after all. It looks ancient and maybe that’s why you were drawn to it. But right now? You can’t even keep your eyes on the page. They want to close so badly. You turn the oven off and leave the food out to deal with in the morning. Right now, you can’t think of anything but sleep.

And so you do. The wolf comes out.


	3. III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose POV, some backstory, and some new characters!

The night is quiet and it knows better than to fuck with you right now. It was bad enough earlier, when you woke up in a cold sweat. The nightmare hangs at the edge of your memory, but you’ve made a point to ignore it. Your dream journal was burned months ago; it never helped. 

Roxy seemed like she was out for the night, but her texts said she was coming home. It’s only twelve right now, so you figure you should hurry. You left in your pajamas and a shawl, like a lady of culture.

Nobody is on the street tonight. Nobody seems to be asleep either. Most of the houses have some lights on. You wonder distantly if the nightmare is regional, then immediately try to forget about the nightmare again. It doesn’t work. The corner of the bandaid is folded and you can’t help but peel. Even if what’s beneath makes you nauseous.

You think it was about bugs. Ticks, maybe. You don’t have any special fear of insects, but if it keeps up like this, you’re sure it could develop. As usual, it was storming within the dream. You don’t remember what the sky was above, but you remember the sky. It was alive and it was angry. Overhead, the night sky is unassuming and starry. You look up at it too hard and almost walk into a pole. It looks like you’re safe for now

Godfrey House is in sight. You should’ve brought a real flashlight, but at least you have your phone. She has to be inside at this time. Where else could she be?

The porch steps creak as you make your way up them. They’re all wooden and rotted, moss and silverfish possessing the better part of it. The door is in slightly better shape, but nothing to write home about. By virtue of this, the lock doesn’t work. You shimmy it open. 

You don’t need your flashlight. There’s several lanterns set up on the floor. There’s also what looks like a deconstructed ceiling fan’s light on the table. It’s bright as fuck. 

Sollux Captor naturally emits his own light at the center of the living room, electricity bouncing off him. He’s Matilda-ing shit again, the drywall is being pulled off the framing of the house while a dustpan catches it. His hands are busy disassembling one of the kitchen chairs, completely oblivious to your presence as he sits on the floor.

You toss a spare piece of wood at him and watch him jump a mile.

“Hey.” You smile at him.

“Hi...” he picks up the wood and pockets it for reasons unclear to both of you, then casts the chair aside. 

You make your way to one of least-damaged couches and stretch out. The house is bizarrely comfortable for something so filled with disease. Sollux gets up and starts sweeping the drywall that the dustpan missed.

“Kind of early for you, isn’t if?” He mutters.

“Kind of late, actually,” you tell him, “got swept up in the grimdark throes again, I was just now freed. It’s never soon enough.”

It’s kind of true.

“Thought you were into that?” He says it so low, maybe he’s not even asking you.

“I didn’t know you were back,” you shrug, changing the subject, “I would’ve stopped by.”

“Yeah, well neither does the school, so let’s keep this under wraps,” His voice is above a whisper for the first time.

“Gotcha. Where’s Aradia?” You sit up to look over at him, then the rest of the house. It seems like only this room is lit up. It seems like you’re the only people in it.

“She’s our right now. You know the nights are busy.”

“She’s always busy, though. I know she sleeps. How does she have the energy?” You think back to the last time you saw her, over a month ago. Her hair was growing out longer, which you thought was impossible for a ghost but evidently was not. It turns out she can alter her form however she likes and does so often. She was pixie-ish back then. She is most times you see her.

“How is she?” You ask Sollux.

“In one of her moods. She might actually be at her grave right now, but of course she didn’t tell me.”

But the other times she’s cold. When you were younger, you used to admire her for being so apathetic, so emotionless. It seemed like an easy out for someone so fraught with emotion. Lately, you’ve been learning to appreciate your feelings for what they are. With that comes pity for Megido. She’s never happy when she’s cold, despite deserving it more than anyone else.

“You think she’ll talk to me?” You gaze at the ceiling. It’s falling apart.

Sollux scoffs.

You end up helping him with the renovations, since it looks like Aradia won’t be home for a while. It’s rare that one needs to completely remove the wall because of damage, but Godfrey House has always proven exceptional. Aradia and Sollux both have episodes. The instability combined with them being (at the moment) the most powerful psychics in town left numerous holes and cracks in the already weak walls. You rip it off until you can only see the wood underneath. It’s in better condition than you thought.

After all the walls are stripped, you take the increasingly heavy garbage bag outside. You need the air. You need to stop thinking of Asbestos, then thinking of The Asbestos Memes. Laughing at Asbestos Memes just means you get more Asbestos in your mouth. It’s an infinite cycle. It’s like Ouroboros, the eternal glutton.

The night air is chilly. It looks like most of the people have gone to sleep; you don’t see as many lights on. The stars grow brighter and more plentiful as a consequence. Still, you can’t help the sense of dread that comes as you state as them. You try to stare them down. The immersion therapy doesn’t work, so you go back inside before you have a panic attack. 

You sit with Sollux on the floor. Exhaustion wracks your body despite you not signing off to it. You can’t sleep here, there’s too many bugs. You’re not ready to walk home, though.

“Did you snitch?” You say faintly.

“Nah,” he picks at the molded carpet, “I wasn’t in there for that.”

“I could guess what you were in for.” You glance at his wrists, but they’re covered up, so you go on, “It’s not as cool as what I was in for.”

“Nothing can top that, I’d be a fool to try,” he laments.

“You would.” You smile, thinking back to eight grade. It’s somewhat of a miracle they let you go to a psych ward instead of jail. Two very interesting events collided at that time. One, you became very involved in your craft. Two, you realized you were being manipulated.

Scratch got caught by the police for a case completely unrelated to your own. You never testified. You never even told Roxy. 

In court, they didn’t try you for stabbing Scratch seven times, despite it being the craziest shit you did. (Not the craziest shit in general - the craziest shit was that he survived.) Nobody knew. They tried you for almost stabbing your classmates (which was not your fault) and killing chickens (not really a crime). 

You had to explain the rationale behind this. Kids under 14 don’t have to swear on the Bible, but even if you did, you still would’ve lied like there was no tomorrow. Throughout all of it, you never mentioned the ghosts or your sight. You had a cursory nod to the horrorterrors that haunt your dreams and threw in some demonology you read the night before. Whatever sounded the most convincing. 

They took it. If that was enough, you wonder what they would’ve done if you told them the much darker truth. A lobotomy, probably.

But they just sent you to the psych ward: St.Paint’s Psychiatric Hospital. A labyrinth of fluorescent lights and coloring books. You were only there for two months. That was enough to make you hate it then and leave a distinct and terrible taste in your mouth upon recalling it now. It wasn’t enough to swear revenge.

Sollux was only gone for one month. Suicide is weighed less than homicide, generally. He doesn’t look much better than when you last saw him, but he looks a little too tired to carry out anything extreme. You realize you’re also very, very tired.

He drives you home in silence. His pills are all in the glovebox, you can read the labels. 

“MEDICATION MAY IMPAIR YOUR ABILITY TO DRIVE OR OPERATE MACHINERY.”

~~~

Roxy made it home despite all odds. She’s sober and you begin to think she’s serious about it. Jane came home with her, she’s still wearing Roxy’s robe. She makes the two of you breakfast. Roxy tries to help, but ends up doing a lot more harm than good. You don’t even bother; you’re worse at it.

Roxy and Jane’s conversation make for good background noise, but you couldn’t ever focus on it. You can’t stop thinking about Aradia. Not just Aradia, but the reason you wanted to see her in the first place.

The reason comes banging on your door.

Roxy hurries to let her in. Not for any particular reason, she’s just always hurrying. Jade jumps back at the sight of her, but soon smiles wide. Your heart flutters without permission. 

She has her hair in braids with a green hat. She’s also wearing a striped shirt and mom jeans, looking extremely 2000s. Jane made more pancakes than necessary because she (correctly) assumed that you couldn’t cook for yourself and would appreciate the leftovers. She offered them to Jade, but Jade was way too giddy to sit down. She keeps eyeing you and you get the message, so you follow her up to your room.

You kind of wish you didn’t, because it’s a whole mess. She doesn’t seem to care, pacing around it anyway.

“Did it happen again?” You ask her.

“Yes!” She cheers, clasping her hands together. You wait for her to tell you why that’s good news.

“It was different this time, though,” she says, “it was me, like, for real! I remember parts of it! I was in control for parts of it.”

“Really?” You lean forward. She nods, her eyes glowing.

“It was only for a little bit, but I found something crazy. I want to show you. Or I just want to make sure it still exists. Really exists. Can we go?”

You get dressed and are out the door in under five minutes. Jade lets you hop on the handlebars of her bike as she rides the two of you towards her house, then out into the woods. It would be uncomfortable if you hadn’t been doing it since you were kids or if Jade wasn’t so careful with you. Even the rocky ride down the dirt road hardly phases you.

“Why were you in the fields?” You ask her, wind rushing past you.

“What?” She yells over it.

“Why were you in the fields when I saw you?” You yell back. It’s on the other side of town and beyond. Meanwhile, the woods are right behind her house. It’d make more sense for her to stay there.

“Man, I don’t know,” she pedals faster, “Maybe I wanted to see you! Maybe I wanted to be seen by you!”

You smile to yourself.

The bike comes to an abrupt halt for seemingly no reason. Jade hooks her arm around your waist so you don’t fly off, but not as gracefully as she probably hoped. With a groan, she hops off and leans her bike against the tree. 

“Down here!” She is ecstatic as she leads you down the forested path. Well, path is a generous term. It seems like pure and unbroken forest, if not for the fact that something very large and very obvious trampled through it. You don’t need to look hard to find the wolf tracks. They’re too big to miss.

You also notice two pairs of footprints walking alongside the tracks.

Jade is far too smart not to notice, but maybe hopeful enough to think you don’t. She starts to jog down the path. You stroll behind her; your eyes scan the forest.

It’s a shorter walk than you expected but longer than you hoped. Jade slows down every so often so you can catch up, but even then she’s bouncing on her heels. You can’t gauge if it’s with excitement or nervousness so you settle on both. Aren’t they the same, after all? But thanks to her patience, you both arrive at roughly the same time. That is to say late. 

“Hey,” Vriska waves at you half-heartedly. Her eyes are less red than normal, but more sunken to compensate. Her hair is pulled up into a ponytail with a teal bow and she’s wearing a blue bomber jacket with an insignia you don’t recognize. By instinct, you move closer to Jade. Then the real threat appears from the shadows.

“Ladies,” she restrains a grin until later.

Terezi Pyrope is 5’3 in posture and 7’ in attitude. You’re not afraid of her, of course. You don’t respect her, either. Nor do you admire her. But your relationship with her falls somewhere in that realm regardless. Her feelings towards you remain as shadowy as the holes where her eyes used to be. The one thing you know is that she does it on purpose.

You think you have your nerves under control until she takes a single step near Jade and every muscle in your body tenses. Noticeably. Vriska is kind enough not to mention, but she smirks at you, and that’s worse.

“Didn’t know you were back, either,” you mutter.

“Really? In all your wisdom?” She turns to you, “Thought you could spot danger from miles away.”

“My foresight tends to focus on matters of importance,” you shrug.

“Scathing, Rose, but correct. I’m not here to terrorize the town for once. If you could stop treating me like a criminal, I would appreciate it.” 

“You are a criminal, though,” Jade pipes in.

“Do you evidence to substantiate your claim?” Terezi turns back. It’s not because she cares about conversational conventions, so you guess it’s a habit. She wasn’t blind from birth. 

“Can you guys shut the fuck up and maybe focus on something important for a second?” Vriska rubs her temples, “We all know Terezi is a criminal, okay? We all know Rose has that dumbass future vision. Let’s talk about shit we don’t know but need to. How about that?”

She’s practically snarling. Something is agitating her beyond your conversation, obviously. It’s unclear what that is but probably would be if you actually paid a bit of attention to your surroundings.

In truth, your eyes glanced over it a couple times. Terezi does a very good job of holding everyone’s attention in a three piece neon suit (who does that in the middle of the woods?). However, with her out of the way, you can finally focus on the matter at hand. Jade has led you to a clearing with a huge boulder. The boulder itself is engraved with a Spirograph containing multiple symbols inside and around it. Moss and vines have covered a great deal of it, but Vriska is busy tearing them away with her pocket knife. In the center, there is a hole. It’s empty.

Jade frowns, “Where…?”

“Looking for this?” Terezi brandishes a small sphere. It takes you a second to work it out, but you do soon enough. Cue ball. Nobody seems to notice you freeze at the sight of it.

“Oh, yup! That’s it!” Jade smiles, in the cute way where she squints her eyes, “What kind of weird mind games do I need to play to get it back?”

“It’s yours?” Vriska turns from her work.

“I don’t see your name on it,” Terezi rolls it in her palms.

“Well, duh, of course you don’t!” Jade walks towards her, “But I saw it first. So even if it’s not mine, it’s not yours either.”

You stay quiet. If you tell them not to fuck with it, they’ll fuck with it more. If they fuck with it regardless, you’ll smash it when the time is right.

Vriska looks, if not bored, annoyed. You walk over to her and help tear off the vines. As you do, you feel the indentations in the rock.

“Any idea what this is?” She asks you.

“Maybe. How did you find out about it?”

“Like I’d tell you!” She cackles. 

Terezi interrupts the two of you, probably not but possibly on purpose. 

“And how did you even know about this place before I did? Before we did? What’s your secret, Harley? Are you psychic too?”

“No!” Jade shouts back, “I live in the area, stupid! You live like 200 miles away and Vriska doesn't leave her house!”

“My mom kicked me out of my house, actually, so get your facts straight!” Vriska yells over to them.

You fall back against the stone. It knocks the breath out of you and the breath leaves in the form of a sigh.

“Jade,” you call out. Both of the girls turn to you.

“Let Terezi keep it. It doesn’t do anything useful. Nothing I couldn’t do on my own.” You brush the hair out of your face and give her your best “This is a cry for help but only you should be able to interpret it as such” look. Somehow, as always, she gets it. She lets the cue ball go as Terezi pockets it in one of her many pockets. The two of them join you in checking out the rock.

“So, do either of you know what it’s supposed to mean? Piece of shit rock didn’t come with a key,” Vriska crosses her arms.

“Hm, nope! I thought maybe Rose would.” Jade smiles at you. You return it graciously.

Terezi reaches her hand out to touch the wall and says, “It sure is a rock. That I know for certain.”

Vriska chokes on air and wheezes out an apology as she starts to describe what exactly is engraved into the boulder.

It’s a spirograph, but parts of it are faded away. At the top, there’s what looks like a triangle. Directly below it is an Aries sign. 

“Oh, so I guess the top one is just an inverted Aries sign? Huh.” Vriska crosses her arms, pondering.

“You’re doing great,” Terezi says flatly.

She goes on. Clockwise of the Aries sign is a picture of the sun. She comment on how pretty it is before being urged on. Further down the line are two Ms. You recognize them as Scorpio and Virgo, respectively. Finally, to the left of the original Aries is the sign for Libra.

The exterior of the spirograph is covered. Vriska moves towards the center with great hesitance.

“So, the hole where you got the cue ball from…” she starts.

“Yeah?”

“It was a mouth. Inside of the spirograph, it’s a skull.”

“Edgy.” Terezi feels for it and puts her fingers directly on the nostrils. She laughs.

“What are your signs, by the way?” You ask them.

“I’m a Sagittarius. Not up there.” Jade frowns.

“3/14. I’m a Pisces,” Terezi says, “also not up there.”

“I’m a Leo! 8/8!” Vriska grins.

“That’s no help at all,” you mutter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It felt weird as hell messing with the gorls’ zodiac signs but canonically Karkat wasn’t even a Cancer he was a Gemini so I can do whatever I want. 
> 
> Also this is only split into two parts because it wasn’t as freeform as before, were getting into actual plot and not just characterization. That’s also why the prose:dialogue ratio is more balanced than usual. Thanks everyone ^u^


	4. IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Rose perspective, more characters, more background.

You get a picture of the wall just in case, but you have a pretty good idea of what it means. You think you do a good job of masking it; nobody asks you again. Terezi is still busy questioning Jade and waving her cane around. You wonder is she knows about the wolf tracks. Vriska definitely does, but doesn’t seem to care. Eventually, she calls Terezi back to make her stop hounding. With that, Jade retreats.

“Ready to go?” She asks you.

“You can.”

“Hm?” She reaches for your hand. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” you shake your head. It’s a longer walk home than it is to ride. The two of you walk up the path. Behind you, Terezi calls out something. You pretend you didn’t hear.

When you get back to Jade’s house, you immediately start walking home. She doesn’t follow you. Neither of you say anything.

The whole walk back is spent in a fugue state. There’s an overwhelming sense of doom that won’t leave you and you can’t really blame it. Where else could it go? There is nowhere it deserves to be more. 

All of them discovered it at once. There’s not enough luck in the world for that to be a coincidence. The tarot cards don’t even need to come out. You know an omen when you see one.

The front door is still unlocked when you get back. Roxy is still home, but it looks like she’s getting ready to leave. Jane is fixing her own makeup in the window’s reflection. Both of them pause as you enter and you guess it’s more obvious than you look. Jane looks sympathetic. Roxy, who knows better, looks nervous. You walk back out the door.

Roxy comes after you, of course.

“Hey, hey, what’s up? Where are ya going?” She catches up. You shudder with frustration. Roxy doesn’t touch you without asking, but you still feel claustrophobic. The whole world feels claustrophobic right now. 

“Rose?” She asks you.

“I don’t know,” you answer, “Nowhere, I guess.”

“...Did something happen with Jade?” It sounds like she’s defusing a bomb. She snipped the wrong wire.

“Yeah, Rox,” your voice breaks, “a lot of things happened.”

You lean into her and she hugs you, smoothing your hair back. You don’t cry that much, you never had. It’s still embarrassing, though. Roxy distracts you from the fact.

“It’ll be okay,” she whispers, “Who needs geeks anyway? All those numbers and shit. Math. So lame. We’ll get you a goth GF instead.”

“It’s not like that,” You laugh quietly, “and you’re a STEM major.”

“Yeah, so I know better than anyone.” She rests her chin on top of your head before pulling away, her hands resting on your shoulders.

“You don’t need to come back in if you don’t want, but I don’t really want you wandering around the city crying like an old herald of doom. Can you at least tell me where you’re going? I can give you a ride to Dave’s if you want.” Her eyes are intense and you know she means it.

“I’ll come back in. It’s fine.” You wipe your eyes. Roxy smiles and bounds back up the steps, holding the door open. You walk in, less volatile this time.

Jane finished applying her makeup and was pacing around the house. You feel some sort of guilt for ruining the mood, but she doesn’t look upset. After Roxy is inside and the door is shut, she speaks.

“We’re taking the train out to Stellarum today. Do you want to come? It might cheer you up.” She smiles. You glance back at Roxy. She raises an eyebrow.

“Are you sure?” You ask. As far as you know, they aren’t dating yet. But it might still be weird.

“Of course! I think you’ll like it, it’s beautiful there,” Jane gushes, “We’re meeting with Callie, too.”

~~~

The Stellarum is an art museum. You’ve never been, but you’ve heard of it. Words didn’t do it justice. The exterior is built like a cathedral, all stained class and intricate carvings. The surrounding town looks like it was taken straight from a Borelli painting. It’s teeming with gardens and flowers. The walkway up was straight cobblestone until they reached the wide arc of a doorway.

Roxy rushed through first, tugging Jane with her. There’s no admissions, it’s a free museum, so you can go basically anywhere. Still, the two of them have a destination in mind. You follow intentionally blind.

The exhibit they’re looking for is far into the museum. It’s carved out its own little corner and is drawing a crowd into the room it’s housed in. You don’t get a chance to enter before Roxy is tackle-hugged.

Calliope is the sweetest person you’ve ever met, which is why you can only handle her in small doses. She’s saccharine. A paintbrush is tucked behind her ear. Little curls of white hair poke out around it from underneath her hat. It’s growing back slowly but surely. Roxy twirls them in her fingers. Callie moves to hug Jane, who embraces her with the same tenderness. You feel the tension as she looks at you, the anxiety of being hugged or the neglect of not being hugged. But Calliope smiles at you like she understands and it all goes away. 

“Callie, the exhibit looks amazing!” Roxy bounces on her heels as she enters. 

“I can show you around.” She blushes and pulls her hat lower. The four of you all eventually enter, but you and Jane trail behind.

“It took her a year to put this all together, you know,” Jane hums.

This is everything from the wallpaper to the ceiling to the picture frames. The whole room is surrounded by black velvet walls with gems stuck into the sides. The ceiling is a mural of a green and swirling sun, orbited by various planets. There are dark figures in the background of space or maybe you’re crazy. It’s a small room, really, but most of it is covered with Calliope’s various paintings. Each of them are set with space as a backdrop. There are many astronauts and aliens, but some are set on Earth. Humans and animals go about their daily business in them with the Milky Way visible in the distance. The center of the room is filled with sculptures. They remind you of a baby’s mobile. Given her attention to detail, they’d be just as fit in a science museum.

“Only a year?” You raise an eyebrow.

“It was the year she in for treatment. She didn’t have much else to do.” Jane frowns, looking over one of the planets on the mobile, “Isn’t this pretty?”

It’s a metallic-looking planet, but covered with flowers and color on one side. It seems to spread like a virus. A pretty one, at least.

Each of the paintings have a tag, but you can tell Callie didn’t write them. She’s in college, but even her most professional essays sound whimsical. You’ve proofread them when Roxy was too drunk. As soon as that memory comes to you, you push it away. 

You actually pass Callie and Roxy, who stopped to look at a pink space-cat painting, dedicated to someone so predictable it’s not worth mentioning. Jane stays with them as you look at the rest of the paintings. It really is an incredible exhibit, especially for Calliope’s age and history. You can’t help but feel a tiny bit inadequate. You’re pulled out of your pity by one of the last pictures of the exhibit.

It’s set in deep space, on what looks to be a green planet. On the surface, there is a golf course. The man in it is impossible not to recognize. His face isn’t there, it’s been replaced with a large white sphere. But his white suit is there with his green button up. Impossible to ignore. You freeze up at the sight of it.

How could you be so stupid? You weren’t even thinking of Calliope. You were thinking of her art. You were thinking of her hair still growing back. Somehow, you completely forgot about the court case. The reason Scratch was in jail to begin with. Severe child abuse and neglect. But it wasn’t from you, or any of the other girls he might’ve tried to tear down. It was his own kid. They found Calliope malnourished and sickly. All trails led back to him. She developed cancer shortly after he was sent to jail and she was recovering fine, you think, probably. You don’t even think anymore. She’s his kid. Dammit. 

She catches you staring at it. If she tells anything, anything to Roxy, you’ll die on the spot. So you pretend that you weren’t even looking.

~~~

After getting coffee and pretending very hard that you couldn’t exist, you all took the train home. Calliope was spending the night, probably planning to corner you. She doesn’t get the chance. You head for Godfrey House at the first opportunity.

Sollux is there, unsurprisingly. More surprisingly, there is no furniture in the house whatsoever. The carpet is ripped up and the floorboards underneath are exposed. They’re also in better condition than you would expect, but Sollux is still cleaning them with an aggressive degree of dedication. Next to him, a bunch of paint swatches float in the air. 

As always, Aradia Megido takes a second to come into focus. As always, she is beautiful when she does. Her hair floats absently around her face and her nightdress flows without wind. She smiles when she sees you and lowers herself to the floor, more or less walking on the surface. She’s a little taller than you.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” you respond, “where have you been?”

“Oh, y’know. Around,” she laughs, “I’m sure you have some idea though.”

“Of sorts,” You smile.

Her eyes glance over to Sollux. You follow. He doesn’t need to look to feel it.

“Sol-“ Aradia starts.

“I need to pick Nepeta up anyway. It’s fine.”

“Oh, you were supposed to do that an hour ago,” She chirps.

“If I go any sooner, she just makes me wait.” Sollux props up the vacuum on the wall. “See ya.”

“Bye! Be careful,” She calls after him. As soon as he leaves, she takes you to the dining room. Most of the chairs are still dubious, but it’s safer than sitting on the wooden floor. 

She has an air of nervousness about her that’s unbecoming. It’s an entirely new sensation, but she smiles through it. And, knowing you, she waits for you to info-dump before saying anything. You take a deep breathe to prepare.

“My friend has developed a habit of turning into a lycanthrope at random and nobody has any way of controlling it. Meanwhile, my potential girlfriend looks like a vampire and likely is a vampire. These two events have coincided in such an eerie way, I was certain it was leading up to something. I kept having dreams of the horrorterrors and the cards all warned me. Ten of swords, constantly. And you know what? Vriska is having the visions again too, I’m certain of it. It’s permeating her consciousness despite her skull being three inches thick. I only know because she was at the site today. It was a carving in the woods, there was the cue ball inside. I let Terezi take it, like some kind of moron. But I was distracted, obviously. The sun was in the carving. I know my goddamn sign and I can’t do this again. Worse, Jade was the one who discovered it. Even Jade is involved now. I’m not ready for what’s coming.”

You take your time getting through the story, then take a deep breath as you admit to it. It’s hardly a confession, though. Aradia has the strongest divination skills you know. More than that, you know she’s been lurking.

“I know,” Aradia says, even though you know she knows, “Terezi has the cue ball, huh?”

“Jade wanted it,” You explain, “I know where my priorities lie. You should too.”

“Of course,” Aradia taps against the table. It makes a noise because she wills it to. She goes on after a second, “Terezi...is she okay?”

“She’s in dire need of a lobotomy, but besides that, yes.”

“Well, that’s not nice,” Aradia’s smile doesn’t fade, “I haven’t been able to get close to her. I need to be unseen and Vriska makes that an impossibility. You know they’re joined at the hip.”

“It’s cute, in a demented sense,” You recline in the chair then lean back up when the wood starts to snap, “But no, Terezi isn’t an astonishing level of crazy. Just baseline. You know she wants to be a paranormal investigator, by the way? Like a ghost hunter.”

Aradia laughs, “That’s just her newest mind game. She already knows the paranormal exist, she just wants a chance to bother them.”

“I’m not so sure,” you offer.

“Well, that was the case last time I saw her,” Aradia shrugs, “I asked if she’s changed at all.”

“She seemed serious about it. Pretty interrogative. But she’s just that abrasive, isn’t she?” You ask, not knowing her nearly as well.

“Depends. I’ll scope out what I can about her situation. I’m just a little worried that she’s the next target.” Aradia is one of the few people you know who can say such terrifying things both casually and respectfully. Most people have only mastered the former.

“I don’t think it’s just one.” You pull your phone from your bag to show her the symbols, “You recognize any of them?”

“Yeah, they’re zodiacs, none of yours though. Obviously you’re the sun. I think I’m the Aries,” She says, almost arbitrarily. You have to ask why.

“I died in April,” she smiles cheerily at you.

Sometimes you forget. Aradia died when she was four. Murdered, apparently, but sometimes her story changes. Her sister died with her at eight years old, but Damara’s ghost is long gone to Godfrey. Nobody quite knows where she is.

You never quite understood ghostly aging, but Aradia always tries to explain. She can look as old as she wants, but the maturity can’t be changed. Ghosts grow older alongside humans from whatever age they died. Most people who die of old age don’t become ghosts, they have no unfinished business. It’s extremely rare that a kid dies and passes entirely. Being a youth is synonymous with having potential. All of your business is unfinished. All of your business isn’t started.

At any rate, Aradia grew up alongside you. When you were little, it would be in the woods or in the fields or in your basement or in your dreams. She was a lot clingier then, Damara wasn’t much help. So you took care of each other. But it was her own idea to move into Godfrey House for the goth cred. Aradia is the only person who knows what happened between you and Scratch, but the way things are going, that might not stay true.

Aradia seems to know what you’re thinking and asks if you’re alright. You shake your head.

“How can he be operating still? He’s in prison. How could he have organized this?” You sigh. You haven’t thought about him seriously in years.

“I don’t pretend to know,” Aradia looks down, “but I need you to be conscious about what’s happening now. Interrogate yourself. You’re part of the equation, but you don’t have to be complacent. And take care of the other girls too, okay?”

She looks back up with urgency and her eyes glow.

“I’ll watch out for them if you do. If you watch out for yourself,” You promise her.

She stands up and hugs you. You know it’s not her you’re feeling, just the manifestation of her powers; but she’s gotten damn good at replicating touch. You bury your head into her shoulder and it’s as real as it gets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi sup hey I’m back to school and this year is my year so expect fewer updates (hard to believe, I know). But anyway please drop me a line if you want me to continue this because I’m debating it rn. There’s a lot to see through til the end.


End file.
